For Some Internet Users, It's Better Late Than Never

WHEN Helen Karjala decided to set up her own computer last year, she was fearless. She patiently plodded her way through the process of setting up the machine and connecting to the Internet, an ordeal that can bring unwholesome utterances to the lips of people half her age.

''I started investigating the wires and the prongs and I thought, 'I can do this,''' recalled Mrs. Karjala, who is 88. ''Of course, I needed a magnifying glass.''

Mrs. Karjala, who lives in Rossmoor, a retirement community in the San Francisco Bay area, now spends at least an hour each day at the computer. She exchanges e-mail messages with two dozen relatives in Finland, keeps her language skills polished by reading a Finnish newspaper online, and collects chicken and eggplant recipes.

Once largely written off as a lost cause, older Americans are now coming into their own as Internet users. They are researching their family histories, sending e-mail, running virtual book clubs, reading about religion and travel, and pursuing other interests lifelong and new.

According to a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a research organization in Washington, the ranks of Americans over 65 who use the Internet have jumped by 47 percent since 2000, making them the fastest-growing group to embrace the online world.

Despite the increases, this age group still has a long way to go. Only 22 percent of Americans over 65 go online, the study shows, compared with 75 percent of those ages 30 to 49. But as Americans who are more comfortable with computers gradually reach the age of 65, the percentage going online (or more precisely, staying online) should soar.

''People who are in their 50's now, once they begin on a computer there's no going back,'' said Tobey Dichter, president and chief executive of Generations on Line, a nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia that provides libraries, nursing homes and senior centers nationwide with special software geared toward the elderly. ''Once they get adept, especially at the Internet, they don't give it up.''

Susannah Fox, director of research at Pew, said the biggest factor pushing older Americans toward Internet use has been family. ''Younger Internet users have probably encouraged their parents and grandparents to start communicating with e-mail, and many seniors have turned out to love it,'' Ms. Fox said.

For many of those younger users, the encouragement has extended to actually setting up a computer for an aged relative. And there are other sources of help: Generations on Line is just one of several programs that have sprung up to assist older people. Senior centers and retirement communities often have their own programs to guide the uninitiated.

Mrs. Karjala, for example, said she was inspired by the computer club at Rossmoor. After her husband, Matt, died four years ago, she began visiting the club's quarters to send e-mail messages to relatives. She was so taken with the novel mode of communication that she decided, with encouragement from the club's administrators, to install a computer in her home.

In setting up an Internet connection, Mrs. Karjala was aware that she was entering a world populated mainly by people far younger than she was, but she persevered. ''It's my main hobby now,'' she said. ''I don't do lawn bowling.'' Her new goal is to hook up a printer a friend gave her.

Leonard Krauss, 74, president of the Rossmoor club, said that Mrs. Karjala's experience was hardly unique. ''People are continuing to learn and stay mentally active instead of vegetating,'' he said.

That is the case with Kathryn Robinson, who was 99 when she first learned to use a computer. Ms. Robinson, who is now 101 and lives at Barclay Friends -- A Senior Living Community, a nursing home in West Chester, Pa., discovered the Internet through Generations on Line. She uses the Internet daily to send greeting cards, look up information and communicate with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

''The computer has kept me busy and kept me in touch and interested in life,'' she said in an e-mail exchange. ''It's always a surprise to find new information about subjects that interest me.''

Indeed, a prominent support structure like Generations on Line or the Rossmoor computer club can be surprisingly magnetic.

Of the 9,500 people who live at Rossmoor, where the average age is 78, nearly one-third participate in the computer club, Mr. Krauss said. ''And it's growing,'' he added.

''There's definitely some peer pressure,'' said Louise Daum, 73, another Rossmoor resident who is just starting out online. ''I thought I'd better dive in while I'm still mentally capable.''

Mrs. Daum worries that she will hit the wrong button and lose all her work, or even break the computer -- common fears among the elderly.

''This is a generation that takes things very seriously,'' Ms. Dichter said. ''The first thing they worry about is that they'll break the machine.''

As more older people gain online access, there has been a concurrent rise in the number of Web sites geared for them. Government agencies, in particular, have patterned their sites after early models established by organizations like SeniorNet, which has been around since 1986 and has had a Web site, www.seniornet.org, since 1995. The United States Administration on Aging has one (www.aoa.dhhs.gov), as does the Social Security Administration (www.seniors.gov). And hundreds of general sites have a special section devoted to the elderly, like a Yahoo health site, dir.yahoo.com/health/senior--health.

Sites like these are intended to make it easier than ever for older people to use the Web. Still, the barriers for an older person thinking about going online can be formidable, Ms. Dichter said. ''The phrase I always hear is, 'They're leaving us behind,''' she said. ''That's what you hear as a constant refrain from people in their seventies.''

Just the typing can be a deterrent. ''Older people type very slowly,'' Ms. Dichter said. ''Some women who had been secretaries can type pretty fast, but for a lot of men it's a real hunt and peck.''

Then there are the peculiarities of Web pages. ''Older people haven't been able to learn how to tell what's clickable and what's not,'' Ms. Dichter said.

Using the mouse, especially for those with tremors and arthritis, is another challenge. One of the Rossmoor computer club's classes concentrates on nothing but mouse navigation.

''I tell people to come to the mouse class because it's there that you can really decide if you want to do it or not,'' said Don Torrence, 77, a Rossmoor resident who teaches the class. One of the first activities in the class involves playing computer solitaire, as the game requires a great deal of clicking and dragging.

Mrs. Karjala was especially grateful for the introduction to solitaire. She still remembers her mother banning all card games from the house when she was a child.

Physicians even prescribe computer use to older patients who have suffered minor strokes, to help them regain motor control. (For Mr. Torrence, it worked the other way: the computer helped him figure out he had had a stroke when he sat down at the keyboard one day and could not move the mouse. ''That's when I told my wife to call 911,'' he said. He has since recovered.)

Rossmoor's two computer classrooms are outfitted not just with computers but with a few additional aids, too, like a public address system, for those with hearing difficulties. Those who attend sometimes get so excited that they forget other things. ''One woman who entered the classroom with her walker got so inspired by the class that she left without it,'' Mr. Krauss said. ''We have people leaving their canes behind all the time.''

Technical needs at Rossmoor are modest. Mrs. Karjala is perfectly happy with her Windows 95 operating system and her dial-up connection. When a reporter asked her if she might be interested in getting a high-speed connection, she asked what that was, then shook her head, ''Oh no, I don't need that,'' she said. ''I have plenty of time.''

Intimidation and fear still can put people off. Many older people are not accustomed to mechanisms that work so quickly and essentially invisibly.

''People over 65 grew up in more of a mechanical world and if you do something wrong things break and they can't be undone,'' said Tom Tullis, senior vice president for human interface design at Fidelity Investments in Boston, which has watched elderly people interact with computers in usability labs. ''Your toaster doesn't have an undo button on it. If you burn the toast, it's burned.''

Mr. Tullis said that the older people who come into his labs will often be slow to commit to a mouse click. ''We refer to it as cautious clicking behavior,'' he said. ''They'll put their mouse over a link, then debate about whether it's the right link to click on, and you don't see that with younger folks.''

Ms. Dichter said that time and again, when she talks with older people who have ventured successfully onto the Internet, she is struck by the sense of independence they gain. ''The first positive impact on a person's life is that self-empowerment, that feeling of, 'I can do it,''' she said. ''Then they're stunned and amazed at the resources available.''

In a survey of 16,000 searches performed by older Americans connected to the Internet through Generations on Line, Ms. Dichter's organization found that those users are not fixated on disease and illness. Rather, she said, ''they are curious and interested in the world around them.''

In the survey, travel, history, hobbies and genealogy were among the top search topics. Disease and illness ranked sixth. ''They'll look up Stephen Foster, Little Rascals, Billy Eckstine and Betty Grable,'' Ms. Dichter said. ''It's a source of pleasure to be able to research things from the past, and they also look up hometowns and read newspapers from other languages.''

Watching Mrs. Karjala sitting at her computer desk, set up in the corner of her small guest room, one cannot help wondering if the computer occasionally heightens a sense of isolation.

Ms. Dichter agreed that this could be the case for old people who live alone. But for those in nursing homes or retirement communities, it fosters a sense of togetherness, she said. ''It happens over and over, when you watch people in a senior center and someone is at the computer, and pretty soon there's a whole cluster of people kibitzing.''

Ms. Dichter pointed out that going online was now something of an imperative for the elderly. ''There are resources dedicated to seniors that aren't available any other way but online,'' she said. Many agencies and services now have far fewer operators taking calls, she noted. ''Now,'' she said, ''everybody directs you to the Web site.''

Helping Hand

Late-Life Lessons for Computer Neophytes

Many community colleges, adult education programs, assisted-living centers and other institutions offer introductory computer classes geared for older people. Several services, Web sites and tools have also sprung up to help newcomers.

GENERATIONS ON LINE -- generationsonline.com -- Provides a free on-screen tutorial in Internet use that is available in many senior centers, public libraries and nursing homes nationwide.

SENIORNET -- www.seniornet.org -- Working with local agencies and sponsors, it has established more than 240 computer labs that offer a range of classes and programs at senior centers, libraries, hospitals and other locations. A state-by-state list is at www.seniornet.org/php/lclist.php.

FOLKS ON LINE -- folksonline.com -- Has information and advice for newcomers to the Internet (of all ages), including a ''first day on the Web'' tutorial.

AARP, the retirees' organization, has an extensive list of tutorials at www.aarp.org/computers-howto and www.aarp.org/learninternet. The group also publishes a monthly e-mail newsletter with computing tips.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section G, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline: For Some Internet Users, It's Better Late Than Never. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe